Home networking and multi-device presentation systems are becoming an increasingly popular mechanism for presenting media content within homes or other local settings. In a typical multi-device scenario, a home may include multiple interconnected presentation devices in different rooms of the home. In one possible configuration, a media content program being received by a hub presentation device from an external or local source can be transferred to one or more other presentation devices throughout the home. This provision gives the users in the home flexibility in their consumption of the media content program. For instance, a user can transfer a media content program from the hub presentation device to a room (such as a bedroom or den) in which the user prefers to consume this media content program.
The above-referenced commonly assigned patent application describes a system for greatly enhancing the presentation options available to users in an environment that includes multiple presentation devices. According to one of the exemplary techniques described in that application, a user can pause a media content presentation at a first presentation device and then resume the presentation at a second presentation device. For instance, in one scenario, the user can pause a live broadcast of a media content program that is being presented at the presentation device located in the living room of the home. The user can then move to her bedroom where she is allowed to resume the media content program on the second presentation device at the exact point where it was paused. This resumption mechanism is of great advantage, as it allows the user to “consume” media content programs throughout the home on different presentation devices without missing any media content and without having to perform burdensome re-queuing of the media content.
Nevertheless, there remains room for improvement regarding the above-described media presentation system. Namely, for instance, the commercial success of media presentation technologies is strongly dependent on the techniques that these technologies use to interact with users—that is, the strategies that these technologies use to present information to users and receive input from the users. It is desirable to increase the utility of such user interfaces by providing an interface design with sufficiently rich functionality. But it is also desirable to provide sufficiently user-friendly interfaces, which may place constraints on the complexity of the user interfaces.
Accordingly, there is an exemplary need for improved interface strategies for allowing users to transfer media content from one presentation device to another (or for allowing users to mark the media content at a presentation device and then later resume the presentation of the media content on the same presentation device).